The To Do List [2013] ★★

What do you say about a coming-of-age movie set in 1993 and starring 29 year old Aubrey Plaza in the role of a teenager? I mean, besides WTF? “The To Do List”, like every teen comedy, makes sex its primary subject. Yet even though the film is strictly low key, it borrows a lot from other films, notably “American Pie”, “Sex Drive” and “Superbad”. Some jokes work, some don’t, but hey it ain’t supposed to be Shakespeare. For starters, I’d say that the movie, written and directed by Maggie Carrey (in her feature debut) has enough heart and retro spirit to hook you up before familiarity kicks in. Plaza plays a high school valedictorian who has never dated or had sex in her life before. When she meets the “boy of her dreams” (who’s actually a douche), she decides to compile a sex to-do list that ends with her finally “doing it” with him. For spice, add Bill Hader, Rachel Bilson and Andy Samberg to try and make things more fun. But for a movie that’s supposed to be different, you keep waiting for the good parts to kick in. Eventually it never happens.